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A65
sports
August 31, 2014 www.guardian.co.tt Sunday Guardian
TRENT BRIDGE---India chan-
nelled the spirit of their unlikely
Champions Trophy victory in
England last year---the fielding
was near world-class and the
spinners were outstanding---to
leave team director Ravi Shastri
clapping in approval midway
through the third ODI at Trent
Bridge. The batsmen then fol-
lowed up with an assured per-
formance that never allowed
England a serious chance of
defending a modest target, and
put India 2-0 ahead in the series.
The turn from the track made
the conditions seem alien for Eng-
land, and a vocal crowd plenty of
whom were backing India only
enhanced that feeling. James
Anderson was roundly booed at
the venue where the biggest con-
troversy of the summer erupted
during the Test. England s ho-
hum effort today will only increase
the boos from the critics who have
already savaged the team s chances
at the World Cup.
When MS Dhoni won the toss
he spoke about wanting to bowl
because of "early morning help"
for his quicks. Though Bhuvnesh-
war Kumar had the ball curling
around, producing plenty of edges,
he couldn t produce the break-
through. An hour after the start,
England were comfortably placed
at 75 for 0, with Alastair Cook
finding some semblance of ODI
form and Alex Hales providing
some of the dynamic hitting he
was picked for.
That was when England s old
troubles against spin surfaced
again, and most gallingly for them,
their initial problems were against
the part-timers, Suresh Raina and
Ambati Rayudu. Hales top-edged
a sweep for the second time in his
two ODI innings as Raina struck
in his first over, before Cook was
stumped to give Rayudu his first
international wicket.
Dhoni had been forced to turn
to his part-timers because quick
bowler Mohit Sharma hobbled off
the field with a leg injury in the
11th over. Though he came back
about an hour later, Dhoni didn t
need to turn to him again as the
spinners, both the specialists and
the irregulars, were strangling Eng-
land. Between the 15th and 42nd
over, which were almost entirely
bowled by the tweakers, there were
only two boundaries.
The ball was gripping and turn-
ing, and England s batsmen
seemed as uncomfortable as
someone undertaking the ice-
bucket challenge. Ravindra Jadeja
got one to spin big, beating Joe
Root s outside edge and Dhoni
pulled off another of his express
stumpings. R Ashwin found the
outside edge five overs later and
Eoin Morgan was caught behind.
From 82 for 0, England had slid
to 120 for 4.
India s fielding in the Test series
had been amateurish, with catches
regularly put down and run-outs
virtually out of the question. Eng-
land s next two wickets, though,
fell through top-notch fielding:
Mohit rifled in a direct hit from
wide long-off to catch Ian Bell
short, and Raina swooped to take
a low slip catch to send back Ben
Stokes.
The run-rate continued to dod-
der despite a couple of reverse-
swept boundaries from Jos Buttler,
and it was only a hard-hitting
cameo from James Tredwell
towards the end of the innings
that lifted England to 227.
Although there was little on paper
to separate the two sides, it seemed
during the first two ODIs that Sri
Lanka were the better team for the
long haul---less likely to make silly
mistakes, and less likely to fold under
pressure. And so it proved in the
decider, as Pakistan crumbled to
their ninth-lowest ODI total in a
match that never threatened to
become a genuine contest.
Sri Lanka strolled to their target in
18.2 overs, and Tillakaratne Dilshan
reached his 38th ODI fifty with the
winning four. Pakistan struck three
times. They dismissed Kumar San-
gakkara cheaply for the third time in
a row, and the third umpire may have
let Dilshan off early in his innings,
but there was no way Sri Lanka were
not winning this one.
For the first time in the series, Pak-
istan began a match in their comfort
zone. Having had to chase two big
targets, they won the toss and batted.
This is what they like to do. It was
the 31st toss Misbah-ul-Haq had won,
and the 21st time he had chosen to
bat. Pakistan had Saeed Ajmal back,
and the pitch, everyone agreed, prom-
ised to help the spinners as the match
progressed. In the deciding match of
a three-match series, things were
finally falling in place for them. Mis-
bah said 260-270 would be a good
score.
Pakistan did not get anywhere near
that. The movement Lasith Malinga
and Dhammika Prasad achieved early
on may have forced them to rethink
their target, but they surely would
not have settled for 102 all out. They
began at a crawl, scoring just six runs
in the first five overs for the loss of
Sharjeel Khan, but what followed flat-
tered Sri Lanka s bowlers. This was
not a typically flat ODI track, certainly,
but it was definitely one on which a
team could survive 50 overs. Pakistan
were bowled out in less than 33, with
their only respite coming during a
40-minute rain interruption when
they were 81 for 8. The match was
reduced, subsequently, to 48 overs a
side.
Quite simply, Pakistan did not show
up, which was a pity for the capacity
crowd that turned up, klaxons blaring,
to watch only the second ODI at the
Rangiri Dambulla Stadium in the last
four years. They were Sri Lanka sup-
porters, but they would not have
wanted their team to have it so easy.
Dhammika Prasad replaced Nuwan
Kulasekara---who had gone wicketless
in the first two ODIs---and struck
with just his ninth ball, as Sharjeel
Khan flirted outside off stump with
no footwork.
It was the start of a procession of
dismissals that owed more to poor
shot selection or execution than to
any devilish trick of bowler or pitch.
Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal and
Shahid Afridi were out going for big
shots, Mohammad Hafeez tried to
work Malinga across the line when
the ball was still moving around, and
Misbah was run-out for the third
time in his last seven innings.
Sri Lanka seamers rout Pakistan
Sri Lanka v Pakistan
Pakistan innings
AhmedShehzadcPererabPrasad........................................10
SharjeelKhancJayawardenebPrasad....................................0
Mohammad Hafeez
lbwbMalinga...............................................................1
Misbah-ul-Haq.........................................runout(Dilshan)18
FawadAlamnotout......................................................38
UmarAkmal†cMalingabPerera...........................................7
SohaibMaqsoodc†SangakkarabPerera...................................7
ShahidAfridicPererabPrasanna..........................................2
WahabRiazc†SangakkarabPerera........................................0
SaeedAjmalcJayawardenebPerera......................................6
MohammadIrfanbHerath.................................................5
Extras(lb1,w6,nb1).....................................................8
Total(allout;32.1overs;158mins)......................................102
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Sharjeel Khan, 2.3 ov), 2-14 (Ahmed Shehzad, 6.4 ov), 3-
14 (Mohammad Hafeez, 7.3 ov), 4-47 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 15.5 ov), 5-55 (Umar
Akmal, 18.2 ov), 6-73 (Sohaib Maqsood, 22.4 ov), 7-76 (Shahid Afridi, 23.5
ov), 8-77 (Wahab Riaz, 24.2 ov), 9-88 (Saeed Ajmal, 28.2 ov), 10-102
(Mohammad Irfan, 32.1 ov)
Bowling: KTGD Prasad 6-0-25-2, SL Malinga 7-2-17-1, AD Mathews 5-0-11-
0, HMRKB Herath 2.1-0-6-1, NLTC Perera8-1-34-4, S Prasanna 4-1-8-1.
Sri Lanka innings
WUTharangabMohammadIrfan.........................................14
TMDilshannotout.......................................................50
KCSangakkara†......................cMohammadHafeezbWahabRiaz2
DPMDJayawardene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .cMohammadHafeezbSaeedAjmal26
ADMathews......................................................notout0
Extras(lb7,w5)..........................................................12
Total(3wickets;18.2overs;84mins)...................................104
Did not bat S Prasanna, SMA Priyanjan, NLTC Perera, KTGD Prasad, HMRKB
Herath, SL Malinga
Fall of wickets 1-46 (Tharanga, 6.6 ov), 2-59 (Sangakkara, 9.4 ov), 3-100
(Jayawardene, 17.5 ov)
Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 7-0-37-1, Wahab Riaz 6-1-42-1, Saeed Ajmal 4-
0-10-1, Shahid Afridi 1.2-0-8-0.
Result: Sri Lanka won by 7 wkts.
SCOREBOARD
India's Ambati Rayudu bats during their One Day International cricket
match against England at the Trent Bridge cricket ground in
Nottingham, England, yesterday. AP PHOTO
India spins to victory
over England
England
AlastairCookstDhonibRayudu.........................................44
AlexHalescDhonibRaina...............................................42
IanBellrunout(Sharma)................................................28
JoeRootstDhonibJadeja................................................2
EoinMorZgancDhonibAshwin..........................................10
JosButtlerbAshwin.....................................................42
BenStokescRainabAshwin..............................................2
ChrisWoakescSharmabShami.........................................15
JamesTredwellcandbKumar...........................................30
StevenFinnrunout(Rayudu).............................................6
JamesAndersonnotout..................................................0
Extras:(3lb,2w,1nb)......................................................6
TOTAL:(allout).........................................................227
Overs: 50
Fall of wickets: 1-82, 2-93, 3-97, 4-120, 5-138, 6-149, 7-182, 8-202, 9-226
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 8-0-45-1 (1nb), Mohit Sharma 3-0-17-0,
Mohammad Shami 9-0-40-1 (1w), Ravichandran Ashwin 10-0-39-3, Suresh
Raina 8-0-37-1, Ambati Rayudu 2-0-8-1 (1w), Ravindra Jadeja 10-0-38-1.
India
AjinkyaRahanecButtlerbFinn..........................................45
ShikharDhawancMorganbWoakes.....................................16
ViratKohlicTredwellbStokes...........................................40
AmbatiRayudunotout..................................................64
SureshRainacWoakesbTredwell.......................................42
RavindraJadejanotout..................................................12
Extras:(2lb,7w)...........................................................9
TOTAL:(for4wickets).................................................228
Overs: 43
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-85, 3-120, 4-207
Bowling: James Anderson 7-0-29-0 (2w), Chris Woakes 8-1-43-1, James
Tredwell 10-1-46-1, Steven Finn 8-0-50-1 (2w), Ben Stokes 6-0-31-1 (1w),
Joe Root 4-0-27-0 (1w)
Did not bat: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar
Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Mohit Sharma
Umpires: Michael Gough, England, and Paul Reiffel, Australia. Third umpire:
Rob Bailey, England.
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.
Toss: won by India.
Result: India wins by 6 wickets
Series: India leads 2-0.
SCOREBOARD